“Why did you think Billy was dead?” Tim asked gently. It had taken him ten minutes to convince Michelle that her friend hadn’t died, and he still wasn’t sure she believed him. “He didn’t fall very far — just a few feet, really.”
“I just knew it,” Michelle replied. “You can tell.”
“You can? How?”
“Just — just by — things. You know.”
Tim waited a moment, but when Michelle didn’t go on, he decided to ask her to tell him again what had happened. He listened without interrupting while she recited the story again.
“And that’s all?” he asked when she was finished.
Michelle nodded.
“Now I want you to think very carefully,” Tim said. “I want you to go over it all once more, and try to remember if you left anything out.”
Michelle began going over the story again. This time Tim stopped her occasionally, trying to prod her memory for detail.
“Now, when Billy started walking along the top of the backstop, where were you standing?”
“At the end of it, right where he climbed up it.”
“Were you touching it? Leaning on it?”
Michelle frowned a little, trying to remember. “No. I was using my cane. I was leaning on my cane.”
“All right,” Tim said “Now, tell me again what happened while Billy was walking the rail.”
She told it exactly as she had before.
“I was watching him,” Michelle said. “I was telling him to be careful, because I was afraid he might fall. And then he tripped — he just tripped, and fell. I tried to catch him, but I couldn’t — he was too far away, and I — well, I can’t move very fast anymore.”
“But what did he trip on?” Tim asked.
“I don’t know — I couldn’t see.”
“You couldn’t see? Why not?” A thought occurred to him. “Was it foggy? Did it get foggy?”
For a split second there was a flicker in Michelle’s eyes, but then she shook her head.
“No. I couldn’t see because I’m not tall enough. Maybe — maybe there was a nail sticking up.”
“Maybe so,” Tim agreed. Then: “What about Amanda? Was she there?”
Again, for just a split second, there was that flicker in Michelle’s eyes. But, again, she shook her head.
“No”
“You’re sure?” Tim urged her. “It could be very important.”
Now Michelle shook her head more definitely. “No!” she exclaimed. “There was no fog, and Amanda wasn’t with me. Billy tripped! That’s all, he just tripped. Don’t you believe me?”
Tim could see that she was on the verge of tears.
“Of course I do,” he said, smiling at her. “You like Billy Evans, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Did he ever tease you?”
“Tease me?”
“You know — the way Susan Peterson did, and some of the other kids.”
“No.” Again, Tim thought he noticed a hesitation.
There was more to the story than Michelle was telling him, but he wasn’t sure that he would be able to get it out of her. Something was holding her back. It was as if she was protecting something. He thought he knew what it was.
Amanda.
Amanda, the dark side of Michelle, had done something, and Michelle was protecting her. Tim knew it would be a long time before he would be able to convince Michelle to abandon her “friend.”
As he was wondering what to say next, Michelle suddenly met his eyes.
“He’s going to die,” she said softly. Tim stared at her, not sure he had heard her right. Then, her voice still soft, but very definite, Michelle repeated the words.
“I know Billy’s going to die.”
June drove slowly, Cal beside her in the front seat, Michelle in the back. Each of them was in his own private world, although both Cal and June were thinking about Billy Evans, lying in a coma in the clinic. Josiah Carson had done as much for the boy as he could, and had given Cal a light sedative. Tomorrow a neurologist would come from Boston. But Cal and Josiah were both sure that the specialist’s findings would only verify what they already knew — Billy’s strangulation had gone on too long; there was brain damage. How extensive the damage was wouldn’t be known until Billy came out of the coma.
If he came out of it.
The silence in the car was beginning to tell on June. She was relieved when she finally had an excuse to break it.
“I have to stop at the Bensons’ to pick up Jenny.”
Cal nodded once, but made no verbal reply. Only when she had turned in at the Bensons’ did he speak.
“I wish you wouldn’t leave Jenny like this.”
“Well, I couldn’t very well bring her with me, could I?”
“You could have called me. I’d have come out and driven you both in.”
“Frankly, I wasn’t sure you’d even be at the school,” June said. Then she remembered Michelle’s silent presence in the backseat. “Never mind. Next time I’ll either call you or bring Jenny with me.” She opened the car door and got out, then held the back door for Michelle. Cal was already on the Bensons’ porch as June and Michelle started up the steps.
Constance Benson must have been waiting for them, for the door opened just as Cal was about to knock. June thought she saw the woman’s lips tighten as she glanced at Michelle. When she said nothing, June decided to wait until they were inside to explain what had happened. But it soon became apparent that Constance Benson had already heard. “I just talked to Estelle Peterson,” she said. “A terrible thing — terrible.” Again, she glanced at Michelle. This time, June was sure there was hostility in her eyes.
“It was an accident,” June said quickly. “Billy was trying to walk the backstop, and he fell. Michelle tried to catch him.”
“Did she?” Constance Benson’s voice was carefully neutral, but June was sure she could hear a hint of sarcasm in it. “I’ll get the baby. She’s upstairs, asleep.”
“I can’t thank you enough for taking care of her,” June said gratefully. Constance was already on the stairs, but she turned back to face June as she spoke.
“Babies aren’t any trouble at all,” she said. “It’s only when they start growing up that the problems come.”
Michelle was standing just inside the door. She took a step toward her father.
“She thinks I did something, doesn’t she?” she asked, when Constance continued up the stairs.
Cal shook his head but said nothing. Michelle turned to her mother.
“Doesn’t she?” she repeated.
“Of course not,” June replied. She went to Michelle, and slipped an arm protectively around her daughter’s shoulders. When Constance reappeared a moment later with Jennifer cradled in her arms, she paused, as if unwilling to deliver the baby to June while she was so close to Michelle. There was a silence, broken at last by Michelle.
“I didn’t hurt Billy,” she said. “It was an accident.”
“What happened to Susan Peterson was an accident, too,” Constance replied. “But I wouldn’t want to try to convince her mother of it.”
June felt herself becoming angry, and decided, quite consciously, not to suppress it.
“That’s a cruel thing to say, Mrs. Benson. You saw what happened to Susan Peterson, and you know perfectly well that Michelle had nothing to do with it. And today, she tried to help Billy Evans. If she could move faster, she would have.”
“Well, all I know is that ‘accidents’ don’t just happen. Something causes them, and you can’t tell me any different!” She handed Jennifer to June, but her eyes suddenly moved to Michelle.
